Republican-led states are increasingly using Medicaid agencies to assist immigration enforcement efforts, expanding beyond federal requirements and prompting concerns from healthcare advocates that immigrant families are avoiding medical care out of fear their information could be shared with federal authorities, as revealed in a new report from KFF Health News.
North Carolina became the latest state to adopt such measures in late April, requiring state health officials to report Medicaid recipients to the Department of Homeland Security if their legal status is considered questionable. Similar laws have already passed in Indiana, Louisiana, Montana and Wyoming, while lawmakers in Oklahoma and Tennessee are considering comparable proposals.
